Andrew Mills/The Star-LedgerGiants CEO John Mara (left) speaks with general manager Jerry Reese during practice in East Rutherford on Monday.

The lockout has accelerated everything in the NFL. This, John Mara has discovered, includes the onset of panic.

The Giants CEO sees it in the frightened letters from fans. They want to know why he isn’t spending more on players — salary cap be damned. They want to know why his team is “settling for mediocrity,” as if the Giants already have raised the white flag over team headquarters.

The man who signs the checks in East Rutherford, one who has seen how panic can evaporate into a Lombardi Trophy before, tries to offer a bit of perspective. It is, after all, still early August. And he thinks good news — especially involving a certain disgruntled defensive end — will come soon.

“I do like going into the season when people’s expectations are a little lower,” Mara said, cracking a smile in his office Monday. “There’s something about that that gets us to perform better.”

The season — not the preseason — will determine if Mara is right, and for that, the Giants can be grateful. Because when you cut two-fifths of your offensive line, let your starting tight end sign with Oakland, see your top draft pick break a bone in his foot and watch as your best pass rusher rides a stationary bike during practice in a snit, it’s hard to be optimistic.

This has not been a smooth two weeks for the Giants, to say the least. But that doesn’t mean the outlook can’t change quickly. For starters: Osi Umenyiora, looking to improve a contract that will pay him $7.1 million over the next two years, almost certainly will be back before the end of training camp.

What choice does he have? Sit out for two full years? He will soon discover his options are a lot like that stationary bike — he can keep pedaling and pouting, but he’s going nowhere.

Mara didn’t say that, but he confirmed that his team was working with Umenyiora’s agent, Tony Agnone, to improve his contract with incentives. Negotiations are ongoing, which is a good sign, even if the two sides are believed to be far apart. The team is offering the incentive to kick in if Umenyiora gets 15 sacks — a total he’s never reached in a season — while the player wants to eliminate the final year of his deal entirely.

“I think it will be resolved and he’ll be a Giant this year,” Mara said. “It’s something we can work out.
“We want him on this team. He belongs here. He’s had a great career here. He adds a lot to this team. I always say, the reason we were able to win Super Bowl XLII was that (the Patriots) couldn’t block our front. That was the first time all year Tom Brady faced that kind of pressure. That, to me, is the heart of our team.”

It certainly isn’t tight end. Losing Kevin Boss to a four-year, $16 million deal in Oakland is a blow to Eli Manning’s offense, especially when his supposed replacement, Ben Patrick, retired two days later. The Giants have few obvious options to upgrade from Travis Beckum before the season.

General manager Jerry Reese better have a Plan C at the position. But this is important to remember about Reese: His greatest strength has not been navigating the free-agent market, but finding gems late in the draft (Boss and running back Ahmad Bradshaw, fifth- and seventh-round picks in 2007 respectively, are on that list) and on the waiver wire (Domenik Hixon).

The most successful franchises are the ones that draft and develop their own players, not overpay for free agents. We will find how well Reese has done that now, because it appears the season — and his reputation — depend on it.

Mara, for one, is convinced the changes will be for the better. As for catching the Eagles, the NFC East rival that seemed to put more signatures on contracts than there are on the Declaration of Independence?

“Am I concerned about them?” Mara asked Monday. “Yeah. But I was concerned about them before they made these moves because we haven’t beaten them in three years.

“I like our team,” he said. “I think if we stay healthy we can compete with anybody. Right now, I’m almost afraid to go out to practice — we’ve already lost our first-round pick. I think we’re going to have a good team. We have an excellent coaching staff. We’re very pleased with our draft.”

Sure, that might be overly optimistic. The Giants looked like a flawed team at the end of last season and haven’t done much to change that. But the accelerated world of the post-lockout NFL hasn’t changed when we’ll know for sure, and that’s when the real games start.

Giants wide receiver Devin Thomas shows off busted fingerNew York Giants wide receiver hopeful Devin Thomas says he hopes to be back on the field this weekend and describes to beat writers how he shredded his right pinkie finger on a routine play last week. (8/8/2011) Star-Ledger video by Andrew Mills